John Gormley
Question:270 Mr. Gormley asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government when the subsidiary directive of EU directive of 96/62/EC will be transposed into Irish law; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18824/99]
Written Answers - Environmental Policy.
John Gormley
Question:271 Mr. Gormley asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government his views on whether it is desirable that each local authority has continuous real time recordings of the pollutants needed to comply with new hourly limit values rather than current daily values; his further views on whether these measurements should be available on the Internet; the plans, if any, he has in this area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18825/99]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 270 and 271 together.
I refer to the reply to Question No. 272 of 16 February 1999. The first subsidiary directive to framework directive 96/62/EEC is directive 1999/30/EC relating to limit values for sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and oxides of nitrogen, particulate matter and lead in ambient air, was adopted on 22 April 1999. Member states are required to transpose the directive into national law by 19 July 2001. Depending on the pollutant, the directive prescribes hourly and-or daily and-or annual limit values. Under the Environmental Protection Agency Act 1992 (Ambient Air Quality Assessment and Management) Regulations 1999 (SI no. 33 of 1999), the agency is the competent authority and body responsible for, inter alia, approval of such ambient air quality measuring devices as it considers necessary for the implementation of the directive and for the analysis of assessment methods. The agency has responsibility for the development of a nationwide air quality monitoring network which may build on such existing local authority arrangements as the agency considers appropriate to ensure the implementation of the directive. I understand that the agency is currently drafting a national air quality monitoring programme in this regard.
The directive requires member states to ensure that up to date information on ambient concentrations of these pollutants is routinely made available to the public. I will be consulting with the agency in due course on the most appropriate mechanisms for this, including consideration of all modern communications systems and networks.